Being married and raising kids.. one or two with special needs

Welcome to my world!

I entered the disability world at twenty-four years of age with a prenatal diagnosis of my firstborn, Abigail Mackenzie. It was a foreign land with a foreign language I had no desire to visit. “Abby is the best and worst of us,” her daddy has always said. This journey has refined me more than anything (next to marriage… ha!). So many days are just plain hard, but the beauty always outlasts and outshines the darkness.

My journey is…

Marriage on the rocks

There are a lot of significant highs and lows. Struggling and fighting for a relationship despite the odds. Intentional time together, grounding in our faith, and a whole lot of humor pull us toward the thriving category more often than one of surviving one.

Parenting by proxy

If the Lord doesn’t intervene, I’ve got nothing. There aren’t books on how to do this special needs life. I give our kids my best, but it often that looks a lot different than most mamas. My best requires a lot of extra caregivers who “mama” my girl so I can wear other hats.

We strive to make sure we give our “typical” kids enough material to make counseling worth there time one day. We all know they’re going to need it! We love hard, talk entirely too much, and do our best to make our kids as uncomfortable as possible with broad topics, too much PDA, and train them from birth to embrace the peacemaker because they need to find their calm in the middle of life’s storms.

Family first

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh…” (Gen. 2:24) Priorities should be hung on the wall because I make decisions every single day to put mine in order: God, spouse, kids… family. A family isn’t just the blood that runs through our veins but those in the body of Christ. Making this a reality is a priority because we aren’t meant to do life alone. Life is messy but relationships are worth it.

Soul Sisters

“Choose people” is a life goal. When I have a decision in life, I choose people. I spend my time on what matters past my life… people.